Welcome
back! Thanks for visiting my blog today! We are exploring together what the
Bible says about wellbeing. Otherwise, how can you live a more satisfied,
fulfilling life?
Last week we began our series
on the results of using the five tools to maturity: praise, prayer, fellowship,
outreach and receiving teaching to cultivate the results of Biblically based
wellbeing in our lives. We discussed initially four of these results:
forgiveness, hope, empathy and thankfulness. An important verse with additional
results of Biblical living is Galatians 5:22 which denotes the ‘fruit of the
Spirit’; love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, humility and self-control.
What
role does the Spirit play?
This
is an important issue to understand how the Spirit works in conjunction with the
tools to maturity to produce good results in our lives. Consider that the five
tools represent the motor for maturity. The Spirit acts as the gasoline,
enriching us with power to drive the engine. Both must be present and work in
conjunction to each other to create movement.
The
Spirit is often misunderstood and Christians are often unclear how it works in
their lives in a Biblically based way. We can summarize the Christian's
relationship to the Spirit in three basic ways:
- Non-variable actions of the Spirit: These include: convicting the world of sin (John 16:9), regeneration to life of new believers (Titus 3:5), indwelling believers from the time of salvation onwards (Ephesians 1:13-14) and praying for believers (Romans 8:26).
- Variable actions of Christians: As believers we can influence our relationship with the Spirit and so we are told not to quench or grieve the Spirit (I Thessalonians 5:19 and Ephesians 4:30 respectively) but to walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:16) and be filled (mature) in the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18)
- Variable actions of the Spirit: If the Christian, being indwelt by the Spirit, allows Him to act then the will teach us (I John 2:20,27, John 16:13), put to death the deeds of the flesh, lead us based on the word of God, comfort us that we are His sons and daughters (Romans 8:13-16) and act to empower our lives through the word of God (Ephesians 6:17)
It
is impossible to overestimate importance of the Spirit in our lives. He has given
us new life through our faith in Christ and lives in us permanently, making
available the full power of God for us based on his Word to mature us providing
the fruit of the Spirit and the enhanced wellbeing of our lives.
Indeed
it is the Spirit that fuels the engine of our growth as an obedient Christian to
God’s word.
That
is all for now. We return to results of a Biblically based life next week based
on the incredible promises of God.
What
can make a Christian lose the Spirit? To participate in our latest poll
question - please visit our website at http://teleiosresearch.com/#anchorpoll
WC Stewart
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